Each
year 10,000 orphans die in Ethiopia, Bewoket was one who survived -- with
the help of Dr. Rick Hodes.

In 1990, Dr. Rick Hodes went to Ethiopia to set up a series of medical
clinics. He never left. Almost 20 years later, “Dr. Rick”
treats thousands of Ethiopians, among them a group of boys who live with
him following life-saving surgery. Bewoketprovides a rare look at Dr. Rick and his remarkable dedication
to making life richer for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
His character is illuminated by the lives of the boys he helps: Bewoket
and his affinity for American cars and his indestructible will to live,
Sharif and his desperate prayer, and Abraham, an angelic child content
to eat pizza.

Bewoket
is a unique opportunity to visit the day to day life of a medical relief
worker, an idealist—and powerhouse—who has devoted his life
to the medical crisis in Africa.

Dr. Rick, an American internist and Orthodox Jew, typifies the Jewish
value of Tikkun Olam (“repairing the world”). Through
him, Judaism has transformative effects; far from his birthplace, Dr.
Rick has established a unique and loving home—a family happily respectful
of different faiths. One Friday evening captured in the film, Dr. Rick
blesses his adopted children, Bewoket who is Christian and Sharif who
is Muslim, as he puts on tefillin with one of the Jewish children. For
all, God and faith sustain and motivate.

A note about the film’s title: Bewoket
(which means “by the will of God”) is the name of Dr. Rick's
adopted son, one of three Ethiopian boys profiled in the film.

DR.
RICK HODES

After spending
five years teaching medical school in Ethiopia on a Fulbright scholarship,
Dr. Rick Hodes was hired as Director of the Joint Distribution Committee’s
Medical Programs in Ethiopia in 1990. Within a year, he was the physician
responsible for the 14,400 Ethiopians who were airlifted to Israel in
Operation Solomon. Today, Dr. Rick manages JDC’s two medical clinics
in Addis Abba and Gondar City, which care for 10,000 Falas Mura (Jews
who were converted to Christianity, generations ago, under duress).

Dr. Rick supervises the clinics’ medical programs, which provide
treatments, immunizations, pre and postnatal care, health education and
family planning services, as well as nutritional assistance. In addition,
Dr. Rick acts as an advisor to the Israeli Ministry of Health, and is
the attending physician at the Mother Teresa Mission, where in the past
year has started a cancer center and is treating patients for cancer.
Dr. Rick is also supplying medicine for Hodgkin’s disease to the
university hospital, so anyone who shows up with Hodgkin’s and cannot
afford treatment can get it for free. In the late 1990’s Dr. Rick
pioneered a program that sent Ethiopian children to America for free heart
surgery.

The number of children he has single-handedly saved through surgery and
providing shelter and education and ongoing medical care for is in the
hundreds. Dr. Rick’s benevolence is contagious; many of the children
he has helped have been fostered for several months and even adopted by
American families.

FILM
WEBSITE

www.bewoket.com

EXTERNAL
LINKS

Watch: CBC
Canada television interview with Dr. Rick Hodes.

Read: Jew-ish
Seattle feature articles on Bewoket filmmakers.

PURCHASE DVD

Home Use DVD:
$29.95

Does not include Classroom or Library Use Rights or Public Performance Rights.More Information